Immigration

I am sitting here reading this morning's paper and didn't make it through page one before I got upset! As a member of our conference's Hispanic/Latino Advisory Board in this area, I was glad to see Millie Rivera made the paper. But I was angered to hear about proposal to count illegal immigrants in schools.

Now I understand we all have a different view of this issue, and there are a lot of reasons for that. I know that since illegal immigrants don't pay taxes (they can't, they're "off the books") it means local school systems have an added expense. I hear that the language thing upsets some people. I know there are many other reasons why good, smart people are very concerned about what they would describe as an illegal immigration problem.

But here is what I just don't get. We are all of us (except Native Americans, and we have still found ways to persecute them over the years) immigrants. And you know what, many of our ancestors were unwelcome, and were mocked and hated by others. My own family is nearly entirely German on one side. I know that Germans were vastly criticized for continuing to speak German instead of English when they came here. And the language thing was pretty major--as it is now.

There is a (probably apocryphal) story out of the Methodist tradition that goes something like this: Early in our nation's history, as Methodist blossomed and Otterbein's United Brethren did as well, it was pretty apparent to leaders of both churches the close connections between them. Otterbein had helped ordain Asbury, and Otterbein had adopted the Methodist Book of Disciple by merely translating it into German. As the story goes, two leaders, one from each of these churches, were talking one day. The Methodist asked why the United Brethren wouldn't just join them. The UB said, "Will you let us have German-speaking churches and conferences?" The Methodist replied no, saying the English was the language of the land and they could never allow that. Now look, over a hundred years later those two churches did join, and though there were other reasons for the separation before, it really is pretty much language that was the major difference. The irony is, within a generation or two, without making it an issue, the Germans adopted English. It was just easier for them.

Others in this area, if not of German descent (and really, those of us of German descent ought be be better students of our own history as regards to the divisions that have plagued our own people for hundreds and hundreds of years and how ridiculous it all looks now), there are also those of Irish, Scottish, even those of poor English descent.

What angers me most is the general lack of hospitality that has begun to characterize us. What I find unbearable is when I sit in Advisory Board meetings and I hear about people scared to leave their homes for fear of getting arrested. And what I think we should all find a bit unsettling is the way that our concern about illegal immigrants has turned us and our local government into people it's hard to be proud of---people who see the skin color of a person and ask ourselves first the question of whether they ought to be here or not. This is a prime example of racial profiling. I am told that people of hispanic-looking descent are routinely pulled over or questioned for minor offenses (offenses that I suspect many of us of European descent would rarely if ever be pulled over for, and I really doubt they'd ask us for our status, especially if we aren't the driver of the car).

There is nothing about this racial profiling that feels very Christian to me. That old, "What Would Jesus Do?" cliche ought to give us some pause here.

Now I am not a policy maker, and I know there are many issues tied into this that I am not expert on. But the general tone of it all is troubling to me.

I saw a video of Brian McLauren recently--he's a major church leader of the Emergent Church movement. Brian was talking about how we often like to think that God has blessed this nation, especially those who are reasonably comfortable, etc. But he points out that if you read the Gospels (I mean, you don't even have to read all that closely, it's pretty blatant), it becomes apparent that God doesn't have favorites, but if God did, it would be those who are persecuted, without, hunted, hiding, in prison, hungry, and suffering. I'm pretty sure that puts a lot of us on the wrong side. That doesn't mean God doesn't love us...but I think it calls us to be part of the ministry to those for whom God sorrows and those who are in such need of God's love and hope.